Veterans’ disability benefits claims were blindly rubber-stamped by a senior veterans service representative (VSR) at the Philadelphia VA Regional Benefit Office for years, resulting in an estimated $2.2 million in improper payments, a government watchdog report has found.A hotline tip made about the employee resulted in an investigation which found they were approving payments at a high volume without even opening or reading attached documents.The errors caused by the federal worker included improper payments to veterans, violations of regulations that could affect veterans’ benefits and procedural deficiencies, the report found. The blind approvals occurred from at least fiscal year 2022…
Author: Tommy Grant
This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge. On the back of a 45% surge in the price of gold this year, the US Treasury’s hoard of the barbarous relic has surpassed $1 trillion in value for the first time in history. That is more than 90 times what’s stated on the government’s balance sheet and is reigniting speculation that Treasury Secretary Bessent could revalue (mark to market) the massive pile of precious metal Unlike most countries, the US’s gold is held by the government directly, rather than the central bank. The Fed instead holds gold certificates corresponding to the value…
Anti-hunters in Florida have devised an underhanded scheme to try to scuttle the scheduled black bear hunt set to begin on December 6. In August, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted unanimously to approve rules establishing a black bear hunt in the for 2025 and beyond. Florida has not held a bear hunt since 2015. Wildlife officials say the hunt is needed to manage Florida’s expanding black bear population, which has boomed from only a few hundred back in the 1970s to more than 4,000 today. In fact, some estimates put the current population at more than…
A collection of small defense technology firms and entrepreneurs is urging lawmakers of both parties to avert a looming government shutdown, warning such a closure would hurt the defense industrial base and startup firms.In a Monday letter to leaders of both parties in the House and Senate, as well as Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the groups said a government shutdown would be extremely wasteful and harm defense firms. Signing onto the letter were the Software in Defense Coalition, the Alliance for Commercial Technology in Government, the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum and the Silicon Valley Defense Group.Past shutdowns…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered 200 Oregon National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, under federal authority, an order the state is challenging in court.President Donald Trump announced plans to send troops into Portland on Saturday to protect federal immigration facilities against “domestic terrorists.”Hegseth’s memo, which was dated Sunday and posted online by Oregon officials, said that “200 members of the Oregon National Guard will be called into Federal service effective immediately for a period of 60 days.”A defense official who spoke to Military Times on condition of anonymity said the Guard is currently in the process of identifying which…
Ukraine’s ruler, Volodymyr Zelensky, has claimed that a United States-made and Israel-supplied Patriot missile defense system is now in use in the war with Russia. This is the first time Kiev has acknowledged the deployment of this type of weapon. According to a report by RT, earlier this month, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced that Berlin had delivered the first launchers of two Patriot units to Kiev. At the time, Pistorius stated that Ukraine would need at least five such systems to protect its airspace. “An Israeli complex is operating in Ukraine. A month. It has been working for…
When the John Wick franchise gives a gun screen time, it becomes an instant icon. In Ballerina — the 2025 spinoff starring Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro — the weapon stealing the show is Taran Tactical’s newest creation: the TTI Ballerina Combat Master Glock 17 Gen5 Package. And unlike a lot of “movie guns,” this one isn’t a one-off prop — it’s a real production pistol you can buy. From the World of John Wick to the Real World Ballerina takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 and follows Eve, a ballet dancer turned assassin seeking…
A U.S. senator who has been an outspoken critic of the military’s privatized family housing wants answers from the Defense Department about its plans to privatize more barracks.“Given the significant challenges that privatization has imposed on military family housing for decades, directly resulting from the substantial failures of private housing providers, I am alarmed that the Department of Defense is considering expanding privatization to unaccompanied military housing (i.e., barracks),” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in a letter Sunday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Warren is one of a number of lawmakers who have worked for years on efforts to improve…
As of August 5th, 2025, Project 2025 was already 47% complete. Now that the psychological operation known as the “assassination of Charile Kirk” has occurred, where is this plan now? It’s safe to say, it’s rolling forward faster and with more intent, but how close are we to a full-blown theocracy under Christian Nationalism? Project 2025 is a political initiative launched by the Heritage Foundation in April 2022 to reshape the U.S. federal government along conservative and right-wing lines, crafted in preparation for a second term of Donald Trump’s presidency. It is a 900-page document designed to implement, among other policies,…
Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. This story, “Two Feet in the Grave,” originally ran in the April 1952 issue of Outdoor Life. I DON’T LIKE to hunt alone. Too many things can happen to a man. He lets his ax slip or has a bad fall or makes a dumb move, and then he’s in trouble, with no partner to help him get out of it. I know. I went out alone for ducks a couple of seasons ago, and nearly disappeared from the face of…